What to Do if Borders has Your Email Address, Bank of America Wants Your Money and You Are Wasting Your Time

Saturday I got an email from Borders but really it was an email from Barnes & Noble. It looks like Barnes & Noble bought Borders’ email list and they wanted to know if it was OK for them to send me emails now. Of course I already get emails from Barnes & Noble anyways, but I was very unhappy to see that my email address provided one last source of cash to now defunct Borders. Since the email allowed me to opt out of future mailings from BN that’s just what I did. You may want to check your email inbox for a similar email since it looks Borders sold about 45 MILLION email addresses to Barnes & Noble.

On another note, I can’t tell you how happy I am that I do not bank with Bank of America. All I hear are unhappy feedback from others who do. If you have missed this, Bank of America is planning to charge people a monthly fee of $5 for using their DEBIT card. Outrageous! but BofA is hardly the only bank who is moving towards making money this way. If you do bank with Bank of America, here are five things you can do to avoid paying these new fees. The banking industry makes my blood boil. First they get “bailed” by the government (read taxpayers) and yet still find ways to make us pay for it, geez.

I have one last article worth reading to share with you: Where Did All of My Time Go? A Recipe for Reclaiming Your Time for Success. It has some very simple tips to get you to stop wasting your time on things that don’t matter. I recently got ready of a major time waster in my life: Skype. I can’t tell you how much happier I am to be enjoying my time in other ways that matter to me. If you have a time waster in your life check out this article.

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Comments

Adriana

Bank of America isn’t the only one that is going to charge for debit cards. Chase is also charging or on the process of changing policies, and Wells Fargo is trying it out in certain states. Apparently, the gov’t reduced the debit card fee banks can charge retailers, so they’re taking it out on the consumers.

Stephanie

Just curious how you were using Skype that caused it to be a time waster for you? I use it to have face to face time with my family who all live far away from me. I probably don’t use it enough, actually. Just curious 🙂

Skype is great for saving money. I was spending a lot of my time using it to chat with people.

Mercedes

Anne

I refuse to use BOA or Wells Fargo. My ILs use BOA. The only reason they do is because they travel and the ATM thing. I don’t agree with them on this. Maybe this latest issue will push them to use another financial institution.

Jenn

Not that I by anyway endorse paying to use your debit card but since I do work in the banking industry and no we weren’t all bailed out. (my employer received no government money) it think that people need to realize that the cost banks pay and have been paying for customer to use debit cards in steadily increasing and banks loss more money on debit cards than they could ever make with this charge. Also the banks are not the main companies charging retailers fees these are separate merchant card companies.

michelle

Banks also use their customers’ money to make money. Do they want everybody to start writing personal checks again? Suntrust Bank is also charging a $5 fee to use debit cards. Once one bank starts the trend to charge then the others will all follow suit. Kinda like when Disney World raises their prices Sea World & Universal do the same thing. People are going to start withdrawing their money & putting it under mattresses again.

Legislation was passed limiting the amount banks could charge merchants on debit card transactions. Under pressure from their stockholders and not wanting to see a reduction in revenue, they devised this lovely plan to pass the fees on to the consumer, instead. Yet another example of a law that was passed because it felt good, and yet had unintended consequences. *sigh*
The banks are hoping that people go back to using credit cards. Because then they’ll forget and carry balances. So they get to soak you one way or the other.
Me? I’m going to a local credit union. I’ve been with BofA since… well, I was itty-bitty and had a passport book where they stamped your balance, that’s how long! Never had an issue with them, any fees were a “my bad”. (Although ringing pending transactions up in order of greatest to least is vexing.) What with having moved to a state that doesn’t have a branch, it’s just time to cut loose.

Krissy

It’s very sad to see that B&N resorted to selling out it’s customers’ email addresses. I too clicked “opt out”. I’ll go back to buying books on Amazon now.

Additional to the $5 charge on debit accounts, one branch in St. Louis was REFUSING to let their customers WITHDRAWAL THEIR OWN MONEY!

An unofficial spokesperson for BoA (would not release his name) claims that they were doing this for fear of “collapsing the branch due to demanded withdrawals from customers all at once.” He referenced this happening in the stock market crash and the great depression. (great way to instill fear in people who are otherwise just upset, BoA!)

You can google it, or search for the video on YouTube. BoA had their enterance blocked by the SWAT. How crazy is that???

Anne

I am in St. Louis. I have heard nothing of this. Too me it looks like the guy is reading off of a card and it has been raining. When was the last time we had rain?

Di

The reason the banks are charging higher fees is because of the Dodd-Frank bill. This bill is forcing the banks to reduce what they charge retailers for using debit cards, which is half what it used to be. Thus, the banks raise their fees to make up for what the FEDS tell them to do. If the FEDS would keep their nose out of the banks business, they wouldn’t be charging this fee. So, this bill which was hawked as helping consumers, has back fired.

I have a friend that was in the banking industry for over 20 years (22 I believe) in management level. She was just forced to retire in September. The banking industry is changing due to customers no longer going to branches. Most people are now doing their banking online. She expects more dramatic changes coming down the pike.

You can thank our government for the $5 fee. According to a news story I read, it is in response to a recent bill in congress that saves retailers MILLIONS of dollars…blame Walmart & the Retail Lobby! It changed the structure of the way banks could collect fees from retailers. My thoughts would be if they companies are paying less in processing fees, maybe we will see lower prices at stores…DOUBT it!

Sickening! so not only did we (taxpayers) front the bill back then but also now.

Mercedes

Anne

If you watch the link I posted, Jean Chatzky says banks have a healthy profit. Personally, I think banks are using this as an excuse. If it wasn’t this bill, they would find another excuse in order to raise rates/fees.

Totally! Banks are the new Air travel industry. Air travel companies were never as profitable as when they started charging people for traveling with their own bags!

Mercedes

Victoria

I work in the banking industry, and it saddens me to always here people talk about “the big bad bank”. I of course can not speak for all banks, but the bank I work for is wonderful. We are a small community bank who did not require any bail out money, and best of all we still have free checking accounts! We do not charge fees for using debit cards, and I REALLY do not think that will change. I understand peoples frustrations with all the recent changes in the banking industry, but it’s made it hard on banks too. Believe it or not banks still have to make money to stay in business. Unfortunately some banks decided to pass that burden onto their clients by charging extra fees. I’m just glad my bank is not one of them!

Anne

Check out what the CEO of BOA says. I have a right to move my money out of there (if my money was there).